KOM Story

UCI WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS - ROAD CYCLING, Richmond, Va., September 2015. Working with host group Richmond2015, led by their exceptional COO Tim Miller, CMO Lee Kallman and event production company Medalist Sports, KOM's assignment was to build out grass roots marketing to the core cycling audience, build fan experiences through festival and on-course fan zones while building partnerships to fund it all. KOM raised close to $800,000 in nine months, brought in four principal partners (USA Cycling, Maxxis Tires, Shimano, and Virginia Tourism) highlighted in the jam-packed fan zones (see photos), plus 74 exhibitors to the Festival which contained the UCI's first Indoor Awards Ceremony, as well as help attract more than 300,000 spectators course side on the final day. The result was a newly-imagined UCI World Championships for road cycling and a proud legacy for the great city of Richmond, Va.

2015 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS - WRESTLING, LAS VEGAS. KOM Sports Marketing was retained by USA Wrestling and Las Vegas Events as the marketing & communications agency for the World Championships at Orleans Arena, September 2015. KOM worked with USA Wrestling and its international federation United World Wrestling on new dynamic Look & Feel for the event incorporating giant video boards, digital entrance arch, etc. Working back with Las Vegas Events, KOM created a robust presence marketing plan with pre-event camps & clinics which included an innovative partnership with the UFC (which some had some of its athletes, which were former USA Wrestling National Team members, appear). KOM also created a multi-tiered targeted ticket campaign which hit a core audience in the U.S. and offered up travel-destination packages internationally. KOM build out the first in-arena Fanfest. The results: the final four nights were sell outs, international TV hit 142 countries, and the dynamic venue presentation broke new ground for a sport looking to be re-energized after almost being eliminated from the Olympic program in 2013.

USA Pro Challenge. In 2010, Lance Armstrong got together with then Governor Bill Ritter to discuss a pro cycling race in Colorado. Not since the end of the Coors Classic under Michael Aisner in 1988 had Colorado had a world-class race. From 2011 to 2015, the USA Pro Challenge, under the great leadership of Shawn Hunter and his dedicated staff, flourished into one of the world's best races. Huge crowds...and a TV audience in more than 180+ countries played witness to the epic scenery and mountain vistas and top-level communities of Colorado. In 2016, the event ownership abruptly dissolved, but, for five glorious years, the event showed world-class. The first-ever stage was less than a mile from KOM's headquarters at Garden of the Gods (see photo). KOM was proud to play a role in associate sponsorship sales, marketing and communications for the event.

2018 World Lacrosse Championships in Netanya, Israel. The Federation of International Lacrosse was seeking a marketing/communications agency to help lift their World Championships into a new realm, tapping into KOM Sports Marketing with only two weeks before the event in July 2018. With APUBz, KOM Sports Marketing created and developed the sport's first FanHub which aggregated game summaries and results, press releases, social media feeds, audio and video content for the event. KOM also created video, digital and social media originating from Israel. All social media channels went up a minimum 500% for the international federation while aggregating more than 63,000 unique visits to the FanHub site on the final three days of the 12-day tournament. FIL aspired to create a shift in how it was viewed internationally while building its brand and content under new CEO Jim Scherr, the former CEO of the U.S. Olympic Committee. Mission accomplished.

Tour of Alberta, which was voted Canada's best new sporting event in 2013. The event brought the province together from Edmonton to Calgary and to such outposts as Drumheller, Grand Prairie and an historical two years in Canada's picturesque Jasper National Park. KOM wrote the marketing plan that helped secure the initial $3.5mm in funding for the start up of the event and then served for the next couple years as marketing agency for the event.

TOUR OF MISSOURI In 2006, KOM Sports Marketing partnered with Medalist Sports to pitch Missouri state tourism on title sponsor for a world-class cycling race. From 2007-09, the Tour of Missouri took place under the leadership from the Lt. Governor's office with leaders Jerry Dowell Stacey Blomberg Ben Jones. On-the ground pros, incl. Priscilla Visintine, Mark Gorski and Community partnerships with City of St Louis & Kansas City and their sports commissions, formed a great in-state team. KOM led Marketing & Communications building out strategies while lending sponsorship support. The event was a smashing success with Missouri Tourism winning sports travel awards. KOM won marketing/campaign awards. Cyclists Alberto Contador, Mark Cavendish, winners George Hincapie & Christian Vandevelde participated. TV coverage reached 161 countries. Crowds were huge. NOTABLE: Missouri corporate partners were a big part of the event's success: Monsanto, ATT Missouri, Emerson, Drury Hotels, and Edward Jones. Michelob Ultra's first foray into cycling sponsorship came through the event.

National Wheelchair Basketball Association, summer 2016 In summer 2016, then interim Executive Director Jim Scherr and current Executive Director Anthony Bartkowski sought to re-define the way Paralympic sport was branded and positioned. KOM Sports Marketing was hired to re-brand, re-position, and build organizational and event campaigns going into the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games. The campaigns which included various videos and static images featured team members and KOM created several videos and static executions. The organizational campaigns: "Roll with U.S." and "Roll Models". The Rio Games campaign: "Hoop Dreams". The campaigns proved good mojo as Team USA ended winning historic gold medals for men and women.

WORLD CYCLING LEAGUE (Test Event), Los Angeles, March 2016 It was both a glorious and dubious assignment. Help launch a league, albeit thru a test event, in 82 days. From 6 team logos to brand standards to merchandise to marketing/PR campaigns to ticket sales in America's toughest sports market, it was task KOM embraced. Working under long-time successful cycling promoter David Chauner and his partners, the goal was to change the face of track cycling with a new format while presenting it in a dynamic way. The WCL's partners created a series of meteorological names for the teams which were leveraged into the marketing campaign. The 3,000+ fans at the event at L.A.'s StubHub Center’s velodrome were treated an exciting evening of track cycling. As one of the fans said in an exit interview: “That was like watching cyclists race through a disco. That was pretty cool."

WORLD CYBER GAMES, SEATTLE 2007 The World Cyber Games seemed an unlikely client for KOM Sports Marketing back in 2007. ESports were not the rage like today. KOM Sports partnered with Jim McDonald of SuperString Theory of New York City as the marketing agency for the event. We were able to reel in activation and sponsorship with Samsung, Circuit City, and several other local Seattle companies. We created an interactive traveling road show through the Puget Sound region pre-event with Samsung monitors for eplayers with activation in Circuit City parking lots. The event was held at the Convention Center next to Safeco Field. The event sold out the final three sessions, a goal we thought was unattainable for a relatively new-genre event. Our marketing campaign: "The World is Coming...And They're Bringing Their Joysticks." It was just the tongue and cheek needed for the ESports world then.

WRESTLING WORLD CUP, LOS ANGELES In April 2014, following the near departure of the sport of wrestling from the Olympic Games, the international federation for wrestling needed a win as well as a new face. Host country USA Wrestling and CEO Rich Bender tapped KOM Sports Marketing, which had worked on its campaign to help get wrestling back into the Olympics, to create and develop key strategies and execution of a new look and feel, on-field display at the World Cup in Los Angeles. KOM worked with USAW's Pete Isais and Andy Barth to develop the event. From fog machines to DJ to large format digital boards in a world-class venue, fans and media attending the World Cup took notice of the “new wrestling”. Large crowds saw USA face Iran in the finals.

TEAM RWANDA SHOWS AT PROFESSIONAL RACE IN COLORADO In 2017, KOM Sports Marketing worked with the Colorado Classic professional cycling race and Team Rwanda, marking an historic first for African sport. KOM’s president Steve Brunner brokered a partnership with THORNE Research, a top nutritional and wellness company, to sponsor the team affording it to come over to the U.S. Team Rwanda, co-founded by team manager/coach Jonathan Boyer, the first American to ride in the Tour de France in 1981, had brought a small African country with a non-existent program into a world-class level in 11 years. The Colorado Classic marked the first time an African nation had a national team in an internationally-sanctioned 2-HC Category race. The team was welcomed by the Colorado community becoming fan favorites. Thorne received an estimated 110 million media impressions worldwide.

KOM's President Steve @sgbrunner44 posts Part 1 of a great read recalling the historic days of the Kent Tour of China when he was @medalistsports
https://www.velonews.com/2018/08/the-outer-line/the-outer-line-inside-the-1995-tour-of-china-part-1_477042